


Capacious

by Bathyal



Series: The Relative Efficacy of Glacial Erosion [2]
Category: Mako Mermaids
Genre: Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-12
Updated: 2014-06-12
Packaged: 2018-02-04 09:16:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1773802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bathyal/pseuds/Bathyal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You try, you really do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Capacious

**Author's Note:**

> Part 2 of The Relative Efficacy of Glacial Erosion. See that? That's how you do ridiculously pretentious series title. This is Lyla's drabble, written in math.

You decided long ago never to let anyone hurt you. You dedicated yourself to your pod, your family, and you strove to prove yourself to them. One night, though, one mistake and you were out, in exile with two girls you barely knew and a near-impossible mission.

You’re not the kind to give up, though, and you pursued any leads you could find, desperate to get back home. Home, in this instance, was the people, because while you still had the pool, they were gone, forced into hiding by the fear of one human teenager. In retrospect, their caution was well-deserved. You’ve seen what human teenagers can do, even if he wasn’t the one you expected to try to destroy you.

Your mask started slipping though, as time went on, and you fought it all the way. Nixie understands the way you feel to some extent, or at least she’s the one whose situation is the closest, but after everything that happened, you don’t want to bring it up. You’ll let her grieve her stillborn relationship. Sirena, though, Sirena has no idea. Her relationship with David is basically perfect, and David doesn’t know what she is. She doesn’t have to worry about him getting sucked into your politics. You do.

So you’re on your own, crawling off to some hidden corner of Rita’s cave system most nights, trying to cope with the inevitable: you’re going to be leaving soon, and Zac either won’t be able to come or won’t want to in the first place. It doesn’t help that he’s coming to Rita’s lessons too, now. It’s nearly impossible for you to avoid him, and most of your brain doesn’t even want to.

You’re in one of these lessons now, you, Zac, and Sirena. (Nixie is off somewhere, probably stalking Cam. She’d been devastated when he betrayed you.) Rita is explaining something that had to do with thermokinesis.  You aren’t really paying attention; you’re much better with cryrokinesis. Thermokinesis is Nixie’s thing, but you’re glad she’s not here, or else she’d be showing you all up.

“So what we’re essentially doing,” Rita explains, “is heating up the water molecules in the air to the point where this happens:” You’re shocked out of your thoughts when the air right in front of Rita bursts into flames, and you instinctively flinch a bit. Zac snickers. “It’s not long term, but it can last enough to light something else or scare away a predator.”

“What’s the fire burning?” Zac asks. It’s a good question, one that you didn’t think of. You’re not completely sure how fire even works still, and you realize how different Zac is from the rest of you.

“Hydrogen in the air.” Zac seems content with the answer, even though you have no clue what that’s even supposed to mean. He leans back into his seat on the bench, still listening to some scientific stuff Rita’s spouting. You’d see if you could get Sirena to explain it to you later, but judging by the look on her face, she’s just as lost as you are.

“Lyla,” Rita says, and you snap back to attention.

“Huh?” Very intelligent, Lyla, you think. You’re so obviously the smartest person here, I don’t even know why Rita even insists on these lessons! Haha.

“I was asking if you were willing to give it a shot.” You’re actually not, and normally you would tell her that, but Zac’s sitting there, leaning his elbows on his knees and watching you with a little bit of encouragement in his eyes, and cod clam it, you’re going to have to do this, aren’t you?

“Sure,” you say standing up. Rita holds her hand out in front of her, and you mimic the motion, trying hard to focus on heat and fire and light. Your mind is suddenly overcome with the opposite though. This isn’t going to last, and you’re going to have to leave eventually, and even if he can come with you, no one in the pod is going to like him and most will actually hate him based on what he is and it’ll be a really sucky life and you can’t subject him to that but you know you can’t stay here with him and—

A floating chunk of ice is levitating in front of your hand, and Rita has taken a step back. In shock, you do the same, and the ice falls to the floor, shattering upon impact, the shards glinting in the light. You look around. Rita’s concerned, and so is Sirena, who’s clutching a pillow in between her arms, chest, and knees. Zac—

Zac is looking at you with the most worried expression you’ve ever seen on his face, and you can’t take it. You take another step backwards before you break into a run, sprinting up the stairs and down into the pool room, not even waiting to finish shifting before you’re out of the cave system, racing as fast as you can _away away away._

You find yourself on one of Mako’s beaches, a small isolated one that you can only get to by water. This of course doesn’t stop you from shifting back and trying to climb up the rocks, grabbing anything you can as a handhold. You somehow manage to get into the bush, run a little bit more, and finally collapse next to an old tree. It’s tall; probably one of the tallest trees on the island, and you can feel its rough bark through your shirt as you lean against it. You give up against the tears you’ve been holding back since the day you realized you love Zac, and everything comes crashing down.

You can hear footsteps and people calling your name (probably worried sick, you think), but all you do is silent your sobs and curl up into a tighter ball. No one knows about your little cove, so they have no clue where you are. Even so, someone comes within thirty meters of you. You’re not sure who it is, but they don’t see you anyway, and you don’t want to give away your position by checking.

After what feels like an eternity, the voices die down, and you let out a breath you weren’t aware you were holding. You feel an arm drape across your back, and a voice says, “You know, you can tell me.”

You look up at Zac, who has dirt and what looks like a twig in his hair and dust on his face. You suddenly feel guilty for making them go to all of the trouble of looking for you. You don’t say anything, just lean into his chest and sob.


End file.
